[from La Nación, 1 March 2011]
An article in La Nación today about drug use, drug manufacturing, & drug trafficking in Argentina. It's in Spanish, but you can ask Google translator to translate it.
The message is that drug trafficking is an increasing problem in Argentina, that the problem could grow to the scale of drug trafficking in Colombia or Mexico, but that the government & police mostly ignore it.
Poor Argentines use paco, aka cocaine paste.
Excerpts:
"According to the latest UN annual report on world drug consumption, Argentina is the largest consumer of cocaine in Latin America & the second in America, second only to the US. 2.6% of the population takes drugs, while in the US, it's 3%. The price of cocaine for personal use in Argentina, according to official sources, is very low: it costs only 10-20% of what the same drug costs in Europe or in the US. . . .
"Formosa, Misiones, Corrientes y Chaco form a very vulnerable region, because of their porous frontiers with Brazil & Paraguay, two countries with intense drug traffic. In northern Argentina, Salta & Jujuy border Bolivia & receive the raw material, coca leaf, or already manufactured cocaine from their neighbor. . . .
It's been known for years that there are hundreds of secret landing strips in north Argentina, but no serious attempt to identify & register them."
